First Grade Admiration
by BarracudaHeart
Summary: Not everyone's a party person. For Corey WW's SU Reddit Writing Prompts: Two characters who do not interact in canon interacting together Onesided Lars/Kiki, Ronaldo/Kiki
Had it been an ordinary Friday night, Lars would probably have spent it at home, in front of his computer, loud metal music blasting from his headphones while he stared at photos of his friends. Thanks to a last minute invitation from Sour Cream, he was spending it on a random classmate's couch, even louder music from a random web-radio station coming from high quality speakers, sandwiched between some guy and the arm of the couch and staring at Buck Dewey as he told what he had insisted was 'the greatest story of the century'.

"And then...the guy just drove off," Buck finished, voice ever so calm and collected.

"Woah...", Sour Cream spoke under his breath from the floor after a long pause, "That totally was the _greatest_ story."

"Yeah! That was like the best story I've ever heard in the history of ever!", Lars blurted out, trying to sound amazed. In truth, he had no idea what the story was about, and it made absolutely no sense, from start to finish. Maybe there was a metaphor he wasn't getting.

Nobody paid much attention to Lars' comment, and the conversation shifted on to something else trivial. And then Ronaldo piped in with something excitable that caught everyone else's attention, which even prompted Lars to get a little excited about it too.

But eventually, like every other social event Lars went to, no matter how exciting, or engaging, or wonderful it was...it soon got to become too much social noise. It was hard to keep up with everything, with all the loud music, the chattering about things he didn't know, the excitement about things he didn't understand. It got to be a little much in a short amount of time.

Lars gave a chipper laugh, telling everyone he'd be right back, that he just had to use the bathroom, and immediately took a detour for the nearest hallway he could find, so he could clear his head, and not embarrass himself from getting socially claustrophobic.

It was annoying that he had to do this in the first place, but if he didn't, he would just risk humiliating himself by once again doing something stupid in front of such an impressionable crowd like forgetting to breathe, or even start to feel sick.

Leaning against the wall, he slid against it until he was seated on the floor, and groaned as he rest his forehead against his knee.

 _This is so lame of you._

"Oh hey," a voice piped up, and Lars realized he hadn't been alone.

Sitting a couple feet away along the wall, Kiki Pizza looked up from her phone, giving a friendly smile, "Partied out already?"

"Oh, uh...Kiki," Lars glanced over, "Hi," then coughed, "Nah, me? I'm chill. Cool. Ice," he smiled as widely as he could, already feeling like he cracked his image, "I was just uh...checking my phone...to look at the other invites...from uh...other parties."

"How many other parties are going on?", she asked curiously.

"...Five," Lars immediately lied.

"Wow, must be a big night for people or something," Kiki mused with a small laugh, scrolling her phone, "I got kind of tired being stuck sitting between some people I didn't know, and listening to the same eight songs on loop."

"O-oh yeah," Lars laughed awkwardly, "Those songs really suck!"

"Oh, I like them, I just don't want them constantly playing," she reiterated, then sighed, "I don't know, I'm not much of a party person to begin with. It's too many people in such a small amount of space."

Lars' smile faded a bit as he felt something ring relatable in her words, "...yeah...I get you," he mumbled, looking at the glow of his phone screen.

"At least at something like Beach-a-Palooza, it's outside, so you can run for the beach screaming if you wanted," Kiki then added with a joking tone.

"Oh yeah," Lars snorted, "Or straight to your workplace, and hide in the freezer."

Kiki gave him a look, laughing a little, "Why? You ever done that?"

Lars flushed red, "Uhhh..."

"Oh my god," she laughed, "Did you dunk your head in ice or something?"

"No, but I got sick from stress eating frozen kiwi fruit pops because I got stuck in there-"

"How are you still alive?", she laughed.

"No idea, I think it's something inhaled from the cleaning chemicals at work," he spoke deadpanned, then his stomach tightened a bit, "Don't tell anyone about that, it's embarrassing."

Kiki immediately nodded in understanding, "Don't worry, I won't. Still, that's a pretty great story you can tell people. Not everyone has been in a freezer with total access to ice cream!"

Lars gave a tiny smile, "Yeah, I guess so."

After a bit of silence of the two typing on their phones, Lars awkwardly spoke up, "So uh...do we have any classes this year? I mean, together?"

Kiki furrowed her brow in thought, "I don't think so. Last year we had art together, that's all I can think of."

"Yeah," he mumbled, "You taking it again this year?"

"No," she sighed, "The projects were fun, but it would take up a lot of time for me to get them done, and I'm trying to get more work in at the shop because Jenny's reduced her hours, and Gunga's back is acting up again."

"What, did she volley a car again?", Lars snickered, then cleared his throat, "Sorry, bad joke."

Kiki hardly reacted to the joke, and shrugged, "Art is fun, but work comes first."

"Aw that's no fun," Lars huffed, "You could always do what I do, sleep at the counter."

"And risk burnt pizza? No thanks," Kiki rolled her eyes, "Besides, with the lunch rushes we get, who has time for naps?"

"Huh," Lars glanced at her, as if he were observing her.

Kiki was a lot different than her sister.

"...So who's the older twin?"

"Me, by two minutes."

"Do you guys have telepathy?"

"Not unless you mean me knowing when she's about to do something that gets her grounded."

"How does she get grounded?", Lars asked incredulously, "She's super cool!", he then paused and added, "You both are super cool!"

Kiki rolled her eyes, "Thanks, but half the 'cool' stuff she does involves the car getting wrecked, or skipping work, or arguing with our dad over stuff, and I end up getting caught in the middle of it."

"Oh...", Lars sucked in his cheeks, "That sucks."

"Eh, sibling rivalry," she shrugged, "You have any brothers or sisters to fight with?"

"One sister, she's already out of the house and got her own family," Lars shrugged, "So I'm basically still the baby brother."

"Aww," Kiki laughed, "That's cute."

Lars gave a small smile, and continued scrolling on his phone. Somehow this whole conversation within a few minutes had made him feel much better than his usual ten minutes of sulking and slamming his head against something.

It really was so weird, in all these years he knew the Pizza Twins, he'd hardly ever gotten to know Kiki. At least, not beyond the first few years.

* * *

 _Lars never understood the sentiment behind the idea that if a boy liked a girl, he would tease her and pull her hair, and steal her toys. He didn't have any interest in doing something like that._

 _He couldn't imagine himself taking a pair of scissors to Kiki Pizza's hair, or spilling paint on her dress, or calling her a stink-face or that she had cooties. That wouldn't make her like him, that would just make her cry._

 _And even then, he wasn't sure if he wanted her to like him. He just really really wanted to like her. He liked how he had his backpack cubby assigned next to hers, so when they arrived at their first grade classroom in the morning, she would cheerfully say good morning to him. He liked when she was the teacher's helper for the week, passing out the art supplies, or handling all the plastic kid-safe scissors. He liked that they were paired up as partners on the field trip to the nature preserve in Pine City, and they had to hold hands on all the hiking trails, and how whenever she raised her hand to answer a question on that trip, she'd keep holding his hand, so she was raising his own as well._

 _During the school holiday play, her sister had gotten glitter in her eye, and she had helped her wash it out until she had stopped crying. Lars wished he knew how to do that, to just be able to be there for people to help them. He almost wanted to stage his own accident with the reindeer antlers on his head, and hope she would comfort his fake tears._

 _When Valentines Day came around, and it was time to prepare cards for the whole class, Lars had spent two hours drawing a picture for Kiki, in lieu of a store bought card with a cartoon character on it. He'd used his crayons to draw her holding his hand, to best present how he liked her._

 _He never put it in her box. He knew someone would laugh at him, so he stuffed it in a shoe box in his closet._

 _He felt bad when she had one less valentine than everyone else. So he gave her one of his own, erasing the name off it, and putting it in her box when she wasn't looking._

 _He just really liked her. She didn't need to know that._

 _When second grade rolled around, and they were in different classes, Lars' understanding and interest of her lost priority to new friends, new learning subjects, and the growing struggle to be popular._

 _By fourth grade, his opinion of her was less of her being the prettiest nicest girl he ever knew, and more of her being that one girl with a twin, and the twin was funnier._

 _He never considered asking her out for his middle school dances, and she was never someone he thought of selecting to ask to homecoming, or junior prom. Once Jenny was taken, Lars didn't consider her as an alternate option._

 _Like most early memories, Kiki was one who faded over time, and gave way to the other new exciting experiences of growing up._

 _And Lars almost forgot her._

* * *

"Hey uh...you wanna get out of here?", Lars suddenly suggested to Kiki.

"Excuse me?", Kiki looked at him, looking taken aback by the question.

"I mean like, to grab food or something? There's like a cafe half a mile from here that-"

"Lars, I'm already _dating_ someone," she spoke with exasperation.

"Hey, I didn't mean it like _that_ ," he scowled a moment then ran a hand through his hair, "I mean, we haven't talked to each other in like, _years_ , neither of us are handling this party and-"

"I have to take my sister home tonight, so no, sorry," she sighed, getting up to rejoin the party, "It was good to talk to you again though. I've missed it."

"...oh...uh...yeah?"

"Yeah," she smiled with a reassurance that made Lars' face go warm all of a sudden, "We'll have to catch up later, OK?"

"U-Uh...ok...", Lars swallowed, and watched her turn to leave, "Wait, who are you dating?"

"Oh, Ronaldo," she smiled happily.

* * *

Sadie's phone buzzed at a late hour with a message from Lars:

 _I'm locked in the freezer again and we're now out of kiwi fruit pops._


End file.
